


a sunday kind of love

by blindbatalex



Category: Football RPF
Genre: M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, aleks hates babies, aleks is grumpy, and a lot of bickering, edin needs to be wooed, please return it to me if you find it, the plot has gone missing, there are feelings, this fic was called soft dzekolarov in my drive until the last min and that's exactly what it is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-25 18:27:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13218522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blindbatalex/pseuds/blindbatalex
Summary: A Sunday in the life of Edin and Aleks.





	a sunday kind of love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kolarov](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kolarov/gifts).



> Nina!!! This was supposed to be your birthday gift and here we are two months later. I hope you forgive me for wrapping your birthday present and holiday present into one. <3
> 
> The inspiration for this fic came to me when I heard [a sunday kind of love](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byDIBzbDfok) in my favorite cafe one fall afternoon and as such it makes for an optional soundtrack.

Aleks beats their alarm clock by a good fifteen minutes on Sunday, finds himself wide awake at 7.30. He almost always does on game days. Edin is still asleep next to him, lying on his stomach and hugging his pillow like his life depends on it. There are no lines, no hints of worry on his face as he sleeps. A faint smile adorns his lips. Aleks ghosts a hand over his cheek before he gets up, careful not to wake him. Edin leans into the touch and his smile widens.  
He finds Aleks making breakfast, slots behind him like he belongs there (he does) and wraps his arms around Aleks’ middle. “I have a knife in my hand, Dzeko,” Aleks says, “why do you have no sense of self-preservation?”

Edin hugs him tighter and presses a kiss into Aleks’ hair. Aleks savors the sensation, basks in the warmth Edin is radiating.

“Shoo. Go make yourself useful instead of distracting me. The tea won’t brew itself.”  
Edin grumbles and lets go, but not before he buries his head on the crook of Aleks’ shoulder for a moment, inhaling him in.

“You know,” he says as he puts the teapot on the stove, “I forgot how grumpy you are in the mornings. I would have told you to stay put in Manchester had I remembered.”

Aleks wipes at the corner of his eye with his sleeve.

“Aww no reason to cry over it,” Edin says regarding him from over the stove with a mischievous grin, tea pot long forgotten.

“I am chopping onions you idiot.”

“Whatever you need to tell yourself to preserve your dignity Kolarov.”

“The tea Edin. It’s still not brewing itself.”

*

They eat in relative silence once Edin finally brews the tea. Aleks runs over the game in his mind, tries to anticipate the opponent’s attacks, what they will have to do to keep the defense tight. Edin seems to be doing just the same in his corner as he guzzles down the omelet Aleks made.

*

They score and score. The stadium sings. Udinese never stood a chance. Aleks plonks down next to Edin on the bench with a grunt with fifteen minutes to go. 

Edin drapes a jacket over his shoulders. Aleks grumbles about not being a child--where did Edin get that extra jacket anyway when he hasn’t been on the bench for five minutes?--Edin grumbles about him acting like one.

“My mum fusses less than you,” Aleks says as he puts the jacket on, and it is getting a little cold if he is being honest now that the sweat has started to cool on his back. Not that Edin needs to know that, ever.

“My wife bickers less than you two and my wife bickers a lot,” Daniele grumbles from the back row.

*

It’s Ünder’s idea to do a team dinner, which Aleks has to admit is pretty ballsy of the kid, given how young and new he is. Unfortunately, like everything organized by a Turk it comes with a side serving of chaos and Edin and Aleks are informed of the plans only after they have left the stadium. 

Edin holds the phone away from his ear for a moment and shouts at Aleks to make a right turn, onto a street they have nearly already passed. A couple cars honk behind them. Aleks rolls down his window and swears right back in Italian. He loves this part - loves driving in Rome, with its uneven streets and awful drivers. He is grateful for the opportunity the city gives him to unload his anger for free on a daily basis.

Next to him Edin shakes his head.

“Like you are any better when you drive,” Aleks shoots back. 

A smile tugs at his lips. That happens quite frequently these days; he will be going about his day and find a kernel of joy lodged firmly between his ribs, or a tune flowing from his lips of its own accord. It’s disconcerting (and it usually happens when Edin is around. Aleks is refusing to investigate what that means.)

*

Edin whips his head to come back with (what he thinks is) a snappy reply and clatters into a stroller at full speed. 

Both the stroller and Edin go down onto the asphalt of the parking lot and Aleks wonders whether Edin would be charged with murder if you know, he ended up crushing the poor baby.

“Oh fuck I am so so sorry,” Edin cries as Aleks turns to see the occupant’s fate. Baby bottles and diapers lie scattered on the ground.

“Please don’t worry about it. I wasn’t looking where I was going,” a woman - a woman holding a small baby in her arms and another small child by hand at her side - replies. The stroller, he and Edin realize at the same time with relief, is empty. 

“Here, let me help you,” she adds quickly.

Aleks doesn’t know in what world it makes sense for _him_ to hold the two small humans while she helps Edin rather than the other way around. 

The baby makes a grab at his nose with its teeny tiny hand. Aleks hates babies, fragile and loud and unpredictable as they are. It is so small and warm and slots perfectly in his arms. He frowns at it hoping it adequately conveys his displeasure to the tiny creature.

Next to him the other child - a girl of four or five - tugs at his hand and declares that he is funny. 

Aleks looks down at her, frown still intact. 

Instead of being terrified as she ought to though the girl laughs at him, her voice full of joy and mirth.

“And what exactly do you think is funny?” Aleks asks.

She doesn't miss a single beat before answering. “Your face looks funny and my dad says even a dog has more loyalty and talent than you.” She is beaming with pride at the big words she said correctly.

Honestly - fucking Lazio fans, from the youngest to the most senile. Though he must admit, it takes a certain courage to tell someone five times your size off like that, without the slightest ounce of fear. Aleks is impressed, almost.

“Sophia!” The woman - who must be her mother - rebukes from where she's knelt on the ground next to Edin, “that is no way to talk to Mr. Kolarov.” 

He doesn't know how to say no when Sophia asks to be carried once they right the stroller and the mom takes the baby back.

Sophia grins as he picks her up. Distantly he can see Edin’s eyebrows shoot up to the sky.

“Tell me Sophia,” he says as they walk towards the restaurant, amused. He has forgotten how heavy five year olds are. “have you ever seen a dog score goals?”

Sophia giggles like he has told a particularly funny joke and there it is again - that treacherous warmth that stirs in Aleks’ chest against his will.

She has just come to the part about how much their dog Rocco likes to sleep when a man with graying hair greets them at the door.

Disgust lines his stern face when he recognizes Aleks. His voice is close to a bark when he orders Sophia to come here.

He snatches her over with little ceremony and they go in ahead of him and Edin while her mom shoots them both a silent apology. 

Aleks grits his teeth.

Fucking Lazio fans.

*

Sophia runs past their table once during dinner. She slows down by Aleks’ seat enough to stick her tongue at him. Aleks sticks his own tongue right back, pulling a face. Sophia disappears in a cloud of giggles.

Something aches in his chest, now cold and empty.

*

The ride back is silent. 

Aleks watches Rome glide past his window, buried in his thoughts. 

“Do you think--”

The question punctures the quiet of the car and Aleks regrets opening his mouth instantly. He is grateful when Edin limits himself to an appraising look and doesn’t ask what it is he thinks.

He knows in all likelihood anyway and must know the impossibility of it too.

They would murder them back home.

They would murder them here too, in all likelihood.

*

Aleks doesn’t realize he has nearly dozed off until Edin’s voice wakes him up. “I think,” Edin is saying, his voice barely above a whisper. “I think things change. They are changing even now and we will figure it out Aleks. Together.” A beat and then, “I think you would make a great father.”

They are lying under the covers facing each other and Edin’s face is close enough for Aleks to see the smile that unfurls across his lips even in the dark room. Aleks runs his thumb across Edin’s cheek. The monumentality of what he is saying is enough to knock the breath out of Aleks’ lungs and he can feel the corners of his eyes stinging.

“But--” Edin continues when Aleks doesn’t say anything, “you are not having my baby out of wedlock Aleks.” 

Aleks snorts at that, at how Edin delivers it with the perfect straight face, and he sneaks a quick sniffle in there too.

“Conservative are we?”

“Upholding family values and tradition have nothing to do with conservatism,” Edin answers primly.

“Fine.” Aleks does his best to sound at least slightly put off. He has a reputation to hold up after all. “I will have to marry you then, won’t I.”

Edin kicks him in the shin under the duvet. “You won’t marry anyone if that rubbish proposal is the best you can come up with, if you can even call it that. I need to be wooed first.”

“Wooed?” Aleks asks. He can hear his heart beating in his ears and hopes that Edin can’t hear it too.

“Yes. Breakfasts in bed.” Edin yawns. “Love poems sung at sunset with champagne, and an epic proposal that knocks me off my feet. I am thinking balloons.”

Aleks tells him to go to sleep, but kisses Edin too, for good measure. So that Edin knows. 

He falls asleep much much later to an image of Edin smothered in pillows, chocolate and champagne by the side of some warm ocean as a plane trailing a will you marry me banner flies on the horizon.

He has no idea what he got himself into, that bastard. If he wants to be wooed Aleks will woo him to death, damnit, starting from tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this please drop me a line! Quite honestly few things give me as much joy as reading comments. <3  
> I am also on [tumblr](https://weareunited.tumblr.com/).


End file.
